Official state report card

Pickerington schools still 'excellent with distinction'

The Pickerington Local School District remained "excellent with distinction" after last week's official release of the full Ohio Department of Education state report card.

The investigation of the Ohio Auditor's Office into allegations of student attendance data rigging by several Ohio school districts did not involve Pickerington, and therefore there were no surprises for the local district following the release of the full state report card Feb. 27.

As district officials indicated would happen last September, the full report card determined the district was excellent with distinction for the 2011-12 school year.

That is the highest overall ranking given by the ODE, and it was the fourth time in five years the district has achieved the designation.

The report card also confirmed Pickerington met all 26 performance indicators based on graduation rates and standardized test scores by grade and subject.

Academic adviser Sandy Meigel said the district's report card data remained "exactly the same" as when an abbreviated version of the report cards was released last fall.

"We continue to be excellent with distinction and we're certainly happy about that," she said. "It's a reflection of all the hard work our staff does."

The report cards also charted districts' "value-added gain," which according to the state measures which schools help students make more than a year's growth in a school year, and which rates whether teachers provided students a year's worth of learning during the school year, and "performance index," which looks at how well students perform on state tests.

Pickerington ranked 46th out of 832 school districts statewide for value added, and 142nd in performance index.

"In value added, we were above expected growth and we didn't have any issues with our reported data," Meigel said.

As reported by the ThisWeek Pickerington Times-Sun last October, the district improved in 18 of 26 indicators from the 2010-11 school year to the 2011-12 school year.

"It helps us look at what our professional development will be and what strategies are working," Meigel said.